Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what is the timetable for the implementation of automatic voter registration, (a) pilots and (b) implementation, and whether it will be rolled out nationally in part by (i) area or (ii) datasets or characteristics to be automated.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is working on the design of direct registration pilots, including timetable and approach, which will be set out in secondary legislation subject to the affirmative procedure. This will give the opportunity for Parliament to scrutinise the plans.

Our plan is to test automated registration in a range of different locations and settings, with different characteristics and challenges, to ensure anything we implement permanently works for everyone. We will be guided throughout by principles of fairness and open engagement. We are consulting a range of stakeholders to develop this programme, including the Electoral Commission, the Association of Electoral Administrators, local authorities and civil society organisations. We will also continue to offer engagement with political parties.